BrooklynVegan & Rocks Off are proud to announce the headliner for our official CMJ showcase aboard the Jewel with the previously announced Kvelertak on October 22nd... Skeletonwitch! The raging blackened-thrash band will play two NYC dates including boat show and Europa on 10/21, and tickets for both the boat show and Europa are on sale. The full slate of bands for both shows will be announced soon, but meanwhile Europa has added Turbid North.

Skeletonwitch are preparing to release their new LP Forever Abomination via Prosthetic Records on 10/11. Stream two new tracks from that LP below. The Ohio band played NYC on Friday (9/9) at Best Buy Theater, supporting Arch Enemy with Devil Driver and Cthtonic. More pictures from that show are below.

As you knew, Norwegian punk-metal crew Kvelertak are coming to the US in October and BrooklynVegan & Rocks Off are proud to announce an official CMJ show on a boat as part of a Concert Cruise on The Jewel on Saturday, October 22nd! The sailing show will feature Kvelertak, a headliner TBA and a third band! Tickets are on sale (limited CMJ badges get in too). Trust me, this show will only get CRAZIER as the days pass. Stay tuned for lineup updates and info on another official (less metal) BrooklynVegan CMJ show coming soon.

Kvelertak will also play a 2nd CMJ show one day earlier in Brooklyn at Europa on 10/21, presented by MetalSucks/MetalInjection/1000Knives with other artists TBA, and tickets are also on sale for that.

Look for the deluxe version of Kvelertak's s/t debut on September 27th. "The package includes four live audio tracks, two demos, three music videos, five live videos, documentaries, extended artwork, a poster and more." Preorder it now. All tour dates and some video below...

As mentioned, Jonny Corndawg is planning to release his new album Down on the Bikini Line on August 30 and play a record release show the same day at Union Pool. That show is being supported by Icerod and The Extraordinaires. Tickets are still available. The new album is also streaming now on Paste.

Jonny was also supposed to play a Rocks Off Cruise on August 27, aka Saturday night (boat was going to leave at midnight!) with Icerod and Mike Farris. That show is now cancelledas is Jonny's show at The Saint with Jessica Lea Mayfield in Asbury Park, NJ that was supposed to happen tonight (8/26).

After playing a waterfront show last month with They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton will take to the high seas on Friday August 19th for a show aboard the Jewel, a Rocks Off NYC Concert Cruise. Tickets are on sale. The show is a prelude to his US tour with TMBG which will occur in two legs: East Coast/Midwest in September and West Coast in November. Full tour schedule is below.

If you can't make it on Friday, you can still catch comedian/songwriter "JoCo" on a boat, but the destination will be much different...

JoCo Cruise Crazy II is a 7-day Southern Caribbean cruise in 2012 on Holland America's ms Westerdam, with music, comedy and performances from Jonathan Coulton and friends. It departs from Ft. Lauderdale, FL on February 19th and returns February 26th, with ports of call at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; Oranjestad, Aruba; and Willemstad (Curacao), Antilles.

Other performers slated for the cruise include Marian Call, Vi Hart, John Hodgman, MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, David Rees, John Roderick, Paul F. Tompkins, Wil Wheaton, and more TBA. Tickets are on sale, and cabins are still available.

All dates and more of a second set of pictures from Coulton's rainy appearance at Williamsburg Waterfront, below...

The Pietasters will return to the area for a weekend of East Coast dates in October. They'll kick off the short run of shows at Maxwell's in Hoboken on Oct 7th. Tickets are on sale. All dates are listed below.

D 100DBs will also be on the 1s & 2s when ska band The Slackers play a Rocks Off Cruise on August 20th. Tickets are still on sale. The Slackers also play a boat show in Boston one day earlier with iLa Mawana.

Gang Gang Dance played the Golden Airplane and Rocks Off presented boat party last night (7/21) with Bubbles. As the tweet above says, GGD tour-mate Nguzunguzu was also on the boat. In fact, though they weren't billed, Nguzunguzu and Total Freedom both played together for 30 minutes before GGD's set like they did on tour. Nguzunguzu then played the official GGD after party at Santos with Death Grips, Traxman, Azizaman, and others.

"We've been a band for a long time, and we've toured all over, and I'll tell you shows like this don't come around very often. We're on a boat going around New York City, and for a couple of you, this is gonna be the best night of your life. This is as good as it's ever gonna get. It's just a long slow slide to death from here," Matt Caughtran told the sweaty crowd from the top of the speaker stack on the Queen of Hearts last Wednesday (6/22).

The Bronx played their first album from start to finish, and closed with a bunch of songs off their last two records. People were clutching the ceiling to keep back the constant push of the crowd, coupled with the slant of the boat to the back where the stage is, and the constant rocking from the water. Anyone who got on top of the crowd had to keep themselves from smashing into the top of the boat as they got tossed around. A couple times I heard the unmistakable sound of skulls hitting metal over the blaring music. And I got yet another opportunity to hold a mic so people slamming into the stand didn't smash out a friend's front teeth while he sang. Boat shows are great for that. They closed out the night with the brutal "History's Stranglers" that had everyone screaming along 'Motherfucker I want your bloooooooooooooood.' Awesome.

Cold Fur opened the show, announcing this was their fourth show as a band, also their first and possibly last boat show. Cold Fur played a fast, heavy set, which is what you'd expect from a band made up of dudes from Rye Coalition and the Want.

I've known the Bronx guitar player Ken Horne for about ten years, from him touring as the lead guitar player for the Dragons. They used photos of mine on their albums on Junk and Gearhead records. I got a chance to talk to him a bit at Union Pool after the boat show. Our chat and more pictures from aboard the Queen of Hearts are below.

The War On Drugs are releasing Slave Ambient on August 17 via Secretly Canadian. In support of the new album, the band is going on a North American tour with Caveman. The tour hits NYC on August 19 at Cameo Gallery (tickets) and August 20 at Mercury Lounge (tickets), though note that the Mercury show is the only date on the tour where Caveman is not currently listed as an opener (nobody else is either).

Caveman are also supposedly playing the Northside Festival, and play a Rocks Off Cruise on June 25 with Hollis Brown. Tickets are on sale for the boat show.

The Greenhornes just finished up a tour with JEFF the Brotherhood, and have announced a few more shows this summer including the Rocks Off Concert Series with The A-Bones. If you're not familiar, that means both bands will be playing sets during a three-hour boat ride around NYC. It rules and will rock. Tickets are on sale now.

The Ettes, who didn't play with the Greenhornes last night in Memphis due to weather, and who will be touring with JEFF's friend Heavy Cream in August (dates TBA), have a new album on the way. Wicked Will will be releaed on 8/2 via Krian Music Group / Fond Object / Fontana. Listen to the first track, "Pendulum", below.

Dam-Funk will team with his live band Master Blazter (Computer Jay & J-1) to play a funky Memorial Day party aboard 'The Queen Of Hearts' as part of a Rocks off Boat Cruise on May 30th. Joining Dam-Funk will be the silky smooth vocals of Steve Arrington (of Slave, who has been known to collabo with Dam-Funk, and who will also have a full band), Bryant K, and Beautiful Swimmers. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale. Flyer below.

Dam-Funk recently released an unreleased and unmastered "Don't Give Up", a remix for the Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti track "Fright Night (Nevermore)", and a new mixtape (culled straight from vinyl... atta boy). All tracks are either downloadable above or streaming below.

Congratulations to The Slackers, who will celebrate their 20th anniversary with a show in their hometown at Bowery Ballroom on June 17th. Tickets are on sale. The show comes less than two weeks after the band returns from a trip to the EU for a few weeks of dates which are all listed below.

Meanwhile, NYC's The Toasters celebrated their 30th anniversary with a beer (named after them, that is) (video below), and after the band returns from Europe, they'll play a Rocks Off Cruise on June 12th. Tickets for the NYC boat show are on sale. All tour dates are below.

The Pietasters will follow the lead of The Toasters, and play July 29th on a Rocks Off Concert Cruise. Tickets are on sale. The show is one of a few East Coast dates scheduled for the band, all of which are listed below.

Bad Manners returns to the US and to NYC with a pair of local shows: May 5th at Maxwell's with Hub City Stompers (tickets) and June 14th at The Studio at Webster Hall (tickets).

3/4 of Kyuss (no Josh Homme) announced the creation of Kyuss Lives! last year. Original Kyuss members Brant Bjork, John Garcia, and Nick Oliveri, along with guitarist Bruno Fevery, have live dates scheduled this year in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, South America and now North America too. So far it's just two U.S. shows, but more will be announced. One of those is at The Fox Theater in Pomona, CA on October 8th, and the other is at NYC's Terminal 5 on September 23rd (the same venue Queens of the Stone Age recently played). Both Kyuss shows are with The Sword, and tickets for both go on sale this week (Terminal 5 goes on sale Friday).

In semi-related news, stoner-blueshounds Clutch will hit the road with Corrosion of Conformity (Animosity lineup) to play a string of dates together that will include Brooklyn Bowl on 7/20 (tickets go on sale Friday). The following day, Clutch play a solo show aboard the Temptress on 7/21 (a Rocks Off Concert Cruise). Tickets for that show are not yet listed.

"Rock N Roll has lived, breathed, evolved and injected itself into NewYork City - transforming itself, the city, the people and the very culture of America and the world along the way. Please allow us to show you the when, the how, the why, and the who.

A walk through Manhattan's East Village is a walk through Rock N Roll history. Boston can have their Freedom Trail and Philly can keep their Liberty Bell, nowhere has more history, culture and tradition than New York City and nowhere rocks nearly as hard. Since famed radio DJ Alan Freed coined the term Rock N Roll, New York has been its ground zero.

Sure, you could go to Cleveland and walk through a museum, or surf Wikipedia until you're blind....OR you could immerse yourself in the very streets and sights where ordinary men and women became immortal rock gods and the proverbial "shit went down." We're talking about a walking tour of the great Rock N Roll haunts of NYC, a one-of-a-kind pilgrimage through the East Village and Lower East Side. From the late 19th century Vaudeville and Yiddish Theaters of the Bowery to the Homesteading by the Beatniks in the 50s, the hippies and radicals of the 60s and the classic rock and punk rockers of the 70s, this is where rock transformed from music to religion.

The Rocks Off Rock N Roll Walking Tour will show you ALL OF IT and then some. See where Leadbelly spent the last few years of his life, Charlie Parker's historic home, the Fillmore East, CBGB, Max's Kansas City, The Electric Circus, The Palladium, The Ritz / Webster Hall, Irving Plaza, Tompkins Square Park, Madonna's first NYC apartment, and tons more! Be prepared to walk the streets that LEGENDS have walked, piss in urinals that Lou Reed pissed in, drink egg creams that the NY Dolls drank, shit where GG Allin shit (everywhere). See where everyone who was anyone partied, played, created, and inspired the whole wide world."

Murder by Death aren't on tour right now, but they are opening for the Hold Steady at Terminal 5 tonight (4/8) (tickets still available), and have some other random upcoming shows including a May 20th Rocks Off Concert Cruise, and a May 21st appearance at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Somerset, NJ. That's how the band lists it, though a bit of research reveals that the NJ show is actually part of the Steampunk World's Fair which is happening at that location from May 20th - May 22nd.

All MbD dates, and details on an art contest for an upcoming 7", below...

Built to Spill played a BV-presented show on a Rocks Off boat last night (9/2), and all those in attendance did in fact safely make it back to shore (aka the West Side Highway) in one piece. Not everyone may remember it though.

If you missed it, or even if you were there and remember every detail, you'll be happy to know that they'll be back in NYC soon. The band will play record release shows on October 5th at Music Hall of Williamsburg and October 6th at Highline Ballroom. Tickets for the Manhattan show are now on sale. Brooklyn show tickets go on sale Friday, 9/10, at noon. The new shows will both be opened by ReVoLtReVoLt, will feature a post-show DJ sets by Doug Martsch (who DJ'd the boat too), and they come right before the Philly show on their recently announced tour.

More good news: NYC Taper taped it and will be posting the full audio soon. In the meantime, you can get a preview of the recording above, and check out the full recording setlist with more pictures, below....

The girls in Heavy Cream opened for the girls in Detroit Cobras on the Rocks Off boat 'Half Moon' on Friday night. For Heavy Cream it was their first of six NYC shows happening before September 8th. More pictures from the boat show, below...

To make sure they don't get shut down, tonight's sold out H2O show happening on a Rocks Off boat is going to be dry ("Our First Ever NO BOOZE CRUISE - Straight Edge on the Hudson!"), which is ironic since those that step outside will probably not be dry at all thanks to the H2O coming down from the sky.

"It's with regret that due to unforeseen circumstances (aka pressure from local authorities who unfoundedly seem to think that our planned show will be a magnet for "violence"), tonights' Murphy's Law show has had to be cancelled. We appreciate it's very late in the day, however all tickets purchased through Ticketweb will automatically be refunded in full. If you bought from a physical outlet you will need to go there for a refund, We apologise for the short notice. We at Rocks Off were really looking forward to this show, as well as last night's Cro Mags show that we also were forced to cancel, and hope we can find a way to make it up to you all soon." [Rocks Off]

That Murphy's Law show, which was unfairly cancelled, was scheduled for tonight (8/12) (update: it has been moved to another venue. see below).

"Scumbag rich fux in NYC
who don't want their chump rich people to have to go to their yacht
past our crew, greased the cops and had our show canceled. Well, the
fact that assholes didn't know how to act at the Murphy's Law boat show,
or the hip hop idiots stabbing people didnt help either! SORRY
...EVERYONE - see you in Philly Saturday"

No, the Cro-Mags weren't predicting the future. The Murphy's Law show that the Cro-Mags are referring to happened four years ago (they play a boat almost every year). A fight at that show caused the boat owners to get a little worried at the time, but things smoothed over shortly afterward and there was never a problem before or after that (not counting a drunken incident on a Van Halen tribute boat cruise).

So why the trouble all of a sudden? And what "hip hop idiots stabbing people" do the Cro-Mags mean? Well, apparently about a month ago there was a stabbing AFTER a boat cruise near the West Side Highway. It wasn't a Rocks Off boat, but it was violence happening in Manhattan that was at least in a small part related to entertainment on a boat. That caused cops to be on alert, and Rocks Off felt it hard when about a zillion cops showed up to their Peter Rosenberg Birthday Bash on July 21st (he's a Hot 97 DJ). The birthday party, which was a Pete Rock & DJ Premier show, left the dock an hour late after cops reportedly boarded and looked around. The boat was then tailed by police who were also waiting for the boat when it got back to shore. Nobody was arrested or making any trouble though (except the cops!).

!! VENUE CHANGE !!
The Murphys Law | Jimmy G's B-Day show tonight is NOT CANCELED but is relocated to a new venue!!! The annual boat trip was canceled and this great yearly event is now happening at Brauer Falls located at 245 Grand St in Brooklyn (across the street from Trash Bar) at 10pm.
Please spread the word and join the party!!!

UPDATE 2, BAD NEWS: Despite the announcement about the show moving being real, the venue is not confirming this show. They said they knew about a Murphy's Law afterparty, but not a performance. Stay tuned.
UPDATE 3: Murphy's Law not playing Bruar Falls. See comments.

The Black Lips are a tough band. The first time I shot them was in 2004, and they're in as good, if not better, shape now then they were then. They've toured hard, constantly, for over seven years, playing every conceivable venue from derelict house parties to huge festivals. It takes strength, mental and physical, to hold up for that long on the road, many bands can't take it and fragment under the pressure. The Lips play shows that turn into near-riots, survive being crushed by the crowd, go out and party all night, and wake up and do it the next day. The boat show on Monday was no exception. Both the opening bands also seemed to know what was in store, and really laid it all on the line.

Brooklyn darlings the K-Holes opened the show before we were barely out of the dock, and gave the crowd a taste of the insanity that was to follow. I can't say enough nice things about them. Check them out for yourself. They raged, got paid, thought they were MC Hammer rich, and their singer ate all the profits.

Natural Child are from Nashville, Tennessee. They have a loose sound, are really fun and a good fit with the Black Lips. I talked to Seth (singer/guitar) to find out a bit more about them. "We started 15 months ago. Wes and Zack (other two dudes in the band) had eaten a bunch of pot brownies. They kept calling me, all day, telling me I had to be in a band with them. I finally told them I'd do it if they would practice five days a week and tour a lot, they said cool, and here we are." They're in the middle of a two week east coast tour right now and have a new 7" out called "Bang My Head."

The crowd was getting thick even before the Lips started playing. When their set began, there was about a five foot gap between the monitors and drums, where Ian, Cole and Jared were standing. By the end of the second song they had been pushed back into the drums. The bass amp Jared was borrowing had a beveled back and kept tipping over. I jumped behind it and jammed my foot into the space so he could keep playing and helped Joe reset the drums when he needed it. You know it's a good party when the drummer gets swarmed.

People in the front had both arms stretched up, clutching the upper deck in an attempt to keep from getting shoved into the band. As the show went on, the wall of people with their arms up got thicker and thicker. A couple people jumped from the upper lever, and things really got crazy. There was no way to hold out forever, and bodies began crashing over the band like ocean waves. After slamming into them, they tried to brace themselves against the amps and drums as the crowd kept pushing in. Jared was pushed farther and farther backward, until the only way he could keep singing was to turn the mic, face the drums and turn his back to the crowd. He had to constantly keep his foot on the mic stand leg to keep from getting hit in the face too hard. Between songs people kept crashing down on him. He muttered, "There isn't even any music. What the fuck......." The band couldn't always see each other, so they had to shout out what the next song was gonna be over the PA.

Near the end, some Justin Bieber looking idiot decided to grab the mic to sing along, disconnecting it and losing the cord underneath all the feet. He was to busy singing with his eyes closed to realize the mic was unplugged, so I found the cord and grabbed the mic from him. At this point, the stand was long gone, so for the last two songs I just held the mic for Jared. Not really the kind of show I wanted to shoot one-handed, but what're ya gonna do?

As I held it, bodies slammed into Jared's back, I could feel the impact of his teeth hitting the microphone, and he looked at me with this big smile. It was like he was in a tornado of people. A huge crush came in, and he was gone under a writhing pile of bodies. When he scrambled up, still playing, he got on top of the crowd and climbed up to the second level of the boat to finish the show.

I talked with him downstairs after their set. He told me they're recording a new album, and it's being done on the fly, like most of their other albums. "It's 60% done. We've been working on it whenever we get a chance. It'll be out next spring, and we're gonna do a big tour with Deerhunter." Other future plans include, "We're trying to play Iraq, we've got friends over there, so we're working on that. Hopefully that'll go smoother than our trip to Kurdistan, where we missed our flight because Joe forgot his wallet," he laughed. "We're gonna take a break from long tours and finish this record. One-off shows and stuff, but no long trips in the van til next year. It's the longest break we've had in over seven years." Some of their one-off dates in August are Austin on the 10th and the Hellow Festival in Monterray, Mexico on the 28th.

The band continues on tour, playing headlining shows between dates with Kings of Leon. They do the latter on August 5th at Camden, NJ's Susquehanna Bank Center, and the former (aka their own show) at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park on August 6th.

Built to Spill will be back in NYC on Thursday, September 2nd for a BrooklynVegan-presented Rocks Off Concert Cruise. Tickets are on sale now.

"Dug Martsch and Brett Nelson are both members of Built To Spill.The Electronic Anthology Project is a side project that Dug and Brett made.It's basically one song off of each BTS record,completely replayed by Brett (synths/drum machine) and resang by Dug.If you like Built To Spill and 80's New Wave then you may like the two together."

Buzzov-en was a sludge metal band from North Carolina, formed in 1989 by the remaining members of Sewer Puppet. The band was known for being one of the founders of the sludge genre (after Eyehategod), and also for their out-of-control and violent live shows. The band in its early days toured heavily around the United States and built up a cult following leading up to the release of their debut album, To a Frown (1993), which caught the attention of Roadrunner Records, who released the band's second album Sore (1994). The band was dropped by Roadrunner, and from then on have gone through several periods of being split-up and reformed, with the only constant member having been Kirk Fisher.

Lightning strikes twice! Just like sludge faves Eyehategod, who returned to NYC with a trip on the high seas, the highly volatile Buzzov-en will return to NYC to play a BrooklyVegan / Rocks Off Concert Cruise on September 30th, alongside Black Tusk, their first NYC show in 12 years! Tickets are on sale, full tour sked is below. FYI, Buzzov-en 2010 looks a little like this: Kirk Fisher, "Dixie" Dave Collins (Weedeater, Bongzilla, Sourvein, Hail! Hornet), and Ramzi Ateya (Sourvein).

The rumor as to why Jelly couldn't do the Pool Party at Williamsburg Waterfront this weekend is because the state, OSA or someone made up a rule that said no more than two shows can happen at the space per weekend, and OSA & AEG had already booked Primus/Gogol Bordello on Friday (tonight) and Nas & Damian Marley on Saturday. By the way, both of those shows are sold out. I am told that there will be no tickets at the door (except maybe from scalpers/people with extras).

"Wanna see Pavement's show at the Williamsburg Waterfront? Too bad sucka - it sold out quicker than you could say "step on a crack and break yo mamma's back." But lucky for you the stage faces the water.. and its fucking LOUD - we know, we tested it our during the Faith No More show. Took a boat out to watch and listen for ourselves. In fact, all the shows that happen there, we can hear all the way across the river at our marina at East 23rd Street. So we KNOW you're gonna be able to hear and see from the boat. And guess what... you can drink $5 beers on the boat. And you won't have to get a wristband from one vendor to then buy drink tix from another venndor to then walk through gated turnstiles and turn the ticket in for beer from yet a third vendor. Then you gotta stay in the penn and drink that shit like the piggy in Animal Farm. Fun Fun fun Til Your Daddy Takes the 12 Ounce Away.

We gonna make it nice and easy. And for only TWENTY BUCKS. Fuck man. We'll probably even be sure to leave late enough to make you not have to sit through that whiny chick from the Wizard. Come on out with us so we can point and laugh at the suckas who paid twice our price!" [Rocks Off]

Speaking of Pavement, more openers have been confirmed. Endless Boogie open the Summerstage show on Thursday, September 23rd. The Beets open Friday, September 24th. Openers for the other three NYC shows are listed HERE, but maybe there will be two openers for each show because Endless Boogie (who just released a new album on Tuesday - MP3 above) tell me that they may be opening at the Waterfront show too, and Slothbear say they're also opening the 23rd.

In a show that could possibly rival the infamous Eyehategod-on-a-boat rager from October of last year, NYC hardcore greats Cro-Mags will play the Temptress on August 11th. Tickets are on sale. Bets are on as to how many people will attempt to dive off of the top floor into the crowd below.

The next day (8/12), the rage continues as Murphy's Law will play the Temptress as part of Jimmy Gestapo's "annual birthday bash". Tickets are still on sale. Murphy's Law have a DVD and a pair of new LPs on the way, a covers LP and an album of new material. The band will also reissue previous releases on vinyl via I Scream Records.